LEARNING CURVE FOR CASTRONEVES

SHAWN COURCHESNE; Courant Staff WriterTHE HARTFORD COURANT

At 10th in points out of 12 competitors, IRL driver Helio Castroneves isn't in position to win the IROC series title. Nevertheless, he would like nothing more than to keep his perfect record at Indianapolis Motor Speedway when the fourth and final IROC race of 2002 is run today.

Castroneves is in his first year competing in the invitation-only series, which uses equally prepared stock style cars. Much different than the open wheel cars Castroneves is used to.

"It's definitely a new learning curve," Castroneves said. "There is nothing like what I'm used to. If I was in my IRL car, I would have a lot of front wing right now. But there's nothing we can do about that because these car don't have wings."

In the first three races of the series, Castroneves finished 11th in the opener at Daytona, seventh at California Speedway and third at Chicagoland Speedway.

"It's fun," Castroneves said. "It's a good to learn in a different way."

Second-year Winston Cup driver and IROC rookie Kevin Harvick is first in series points with 44. Al Unser Jr. is secondwith 39, but will not race today. Tony Stewart sits six points behind Harvick.

"Any time you can win a championship it's big," said Stewart, who is from Indiana and is still looking for his first victory at Indy. "But the IROC championship, to compete against so many different drivers from so many different disciplines, and to beat them in a series where the cars are so evenly matched, that's big."

Bill Elliott, coming off his first win of the season Sunday at Pocono Raceway, was second fastest at 181.613 mph.

"[Today] is going to be a whole different story," Elliott said. "We never tried any qualifying runs at the test and now we've just got to give our best shot. It's a work in progress."

Winston Cup Gets SAFER

Sunday's race will be the first Winston Cup event using soft-wall technology. Indianapolis Motor Speedway installed its SAFER barrier system in the turns of the 2.5-mile speedway before this year's Indy 500.

New Hampshire International Speedway owner Bob Bahre had expected his track to be the first to hold a stock car event with the SAFER barriers up, but NASCAR wouldn't allow him to install them before the July 21 New England 300.

"What works here might not necessarily work at New Hampshire," Ricky Rudd said. "The shape of the wall, everything, makes quite a bit of difference."